Boeing 787 production frozen as fastener issue bites

On-going replacement of thousands of Boeing 787 fasteners has frozen the production line, as the airframer conducts a formal assessment of the programme's schedule, including the timeline for first flight and delivery.

Significant programme resources have been brought to bear as work continues on replacing fasteners and providing flight-test aircraft with a clean structural bill of health.

Boeing declines to comment on the pace of the on-going schedule assessment.

But ATI affiliate Flightblogger reports that, according to sources familiar with the fastener replacement timeline, the expected completion of the fix for Dreamliner One should come by the end of December.

The effects of the fastener replacement, however, are reverberating down the 787 assembly line. Sources at Everett state that no production airframe movements are scheduled for the remainder of the year, resulting in final assembly start for Dreamliner Five - the first General Electric GEnx-powered 787 - being pushed into 2009.